Fans of Breath of the Wild and the Zelda series as a whole no doubt still have many questions about the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom. One particularly important question for many is how Tears of the Kingdom will handle the series-staple dungeons. Although Breath of the Wild did feature something akin to dungeons in the form of the Divine Beasts, many longtime fans took issue with how Nintendo structured them. Overall, the Divine Beasts had much smaller layouts and simpler puzzles than the dungeons of yore, and their visual designs lacked distinction. Many have hoped that Tears of the Kingdom will improve upon its predecessor by including more traditionally designed Zelda dungeons. So does the game deliver on this?
Will there be more traditional dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom?
Fortunately, the developers have confirmed that Tears of the Kingdom will boast dungeons more comparable to those of past games. The developers briefly discussed the dungeons in an interview posted on Nintendo’s website. In it, technical director Takuhiro Dohta stated that each dungeon matches the environment you find it in. Art director Satoru Takizawa followed up by saying that the dungeons “each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games.”
Takizawa also described Tears of the Kingdom’s dungeons as “huge,” addressing the relatively small scope of the previous game’s Divine Beasts. Although neither Dohta nor Takizawa revealed the total number of dungeons, Dohta’s description of “a wide variety of regional characteristics” suggests that this number will exceed that of the four Divine Beasts from Breath of the Wild. The developers believe that the dungeons will offer rewarding challenges for players to conquer, so we will see if that holds true.
The news revealed during this Tears of the Kingdom interview will definitely please fans who have craved more traditional Zelda dungeons for a long time. Of course, given the radically distinct gameplay formula from that of past games, the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom will likely still differ quite substantially from what fans have grown used to. Hopefully, they will end up satisfying to traverse regardless of how they turn out.
Image via Nintendo
